187 ?.] Notices of Books . 537 
interesting question, those of France still hold aloof, and contri- 
bute nothing towards the solution of the problems here stated or 
suggested. For instance, it may well be asked why, in spite of 
all the wonderful contrivances for fertilisation which we are 
compelled to recognise, so few of the seeds of the Orchids are 
really productive ? According to Mr. Scott a single plant of an 
Acropera may sometimes yield seventy-four millions of seeds. 
In a single capsule of a Maxillaria Fritz Muller found 1,756,440 
seeds. Yet some unknown cause checks their multiplication, 
so that, despite the astonishing number of their seeds, they are 
as a rule sparingly distributed. In no country is the number of 
individuals of any one species nearly so great as that of very 
many other and far less prolific plants. 
The following faCt deserves to be seriously considered by all 
who are engaged in experimenting on the part played by inseCts 
in the fertilisation of plants. According, namely, to Mr. Mogg- 
ridge, “ Ophrys scolopax fertilises itself freely in one district of 
Southern France without the aid of inseCts, and is completely 
sterile without such aid in another district.” 
The seventh chapter of the book, treating of the fertilisation 
of the Catasetidcu, is strangely suggestive. The flowers of the 
male plant, if touched at certain definite points by an inseCt, 
shoot forth their pollinia, which, being furnished with excessively 
adhesive points, cling to the intruder, and are by him carried to 
a female plant. If this is mere automatism, where in the organic 
world are we to draw a sharp boundary line between such mere 
mechanical aCtion and the “ instinctive ” performances of the 
lower animals, or even of man ? But if there be nothing auto- 
matic in the latter, can we venture to deny that the plant may 
also have its instinCts, and even its dim self-consciousness ? 
What if the old myth of the hamadryads foreshadowed a great 
truth ? 
Through Norway with Ladies . By W. Mattieu Williams, 
F.R.A.S., F.C.S., &c. London : E. Stanford. 
The mere title of this book will at once reveal its origin and 
secure for it a favourable reception. Nor will such persons as 
are led to take up the work, by their pleasant recollections of 
its companion volume, find themselves disappointed. Mr. Wil- 
liams journeys not to have “ done ” certain localities, but to see 
and to learn : he finds interesting faCts which too many ramblers 
overlook ; he draws valuable lessons from phenomena apparently 
threadbare, and he lays before us his observations and reflections 
in a genial and pleasing manner, and without “ posing ” for our 
admiration. If the work before us does not equal certain records 
of travel which have appeared within the last quarter of a 
